Home

After 15 years of providing her family from Israel working as a maid, Mila must go back to Ukraine. She is fighting to reunite her family and to win them back at any cost, but slowly realizes that for her, there is no way back home.

Director's statement

After many years of struggling with Parkinson disease, my mom let into her home an immigrant worker. A bulldozer dug a deep cavern under the house, to build an underground room for the new housekeeper. And suddenly there was another woman. Having a new foreign woman at our home affected me a lot - She was always next to us, but everyone was trying to pretend as if she was not there.

In the beginning, she was just the Ukrainian caregiver for me too. But slowly we started talking. With time she became a real friend of mine, but there is always an unseen wall that separates us.

That was the starting point for Home, and what made me create Mila’s character. We were about to shoot our film together with our Ukrainian co-producer in Ukraine in August 2022, but then the war started. After the first shock and horror we decided to keep working on our film. In the script there is a torn character fighting for her future, she is facing culture clash, and financial and social division. She is searching for the meaning of home as a never-ending immigrant. All those themes, unfortunately, have become too relevant in our new horrible reality.

Producer's statement

Producing the film Home started off very promising. The script was developed in the Torino script lab and in the following year won the Torino feature lab production award. The Israeli and Ukrainan film funds supported the film. Production was on its way. And then, as we all know, on February 2022, we watched together with the entire world, Russia's invasion to Ukraine. Vladimir Yitzenko from Forefilm, our co-producer joined the forces. The Ukrainian financing fell and the project came to a stop. BUT, we didn't give up because we feel the story became even more relevant now, and together with Vladimir we are confident we would find new partners. Currently we secured 50% of the budget and we are looking for partners to replace the Ukrainian funding and to complete the gap.

Or and I work together since film school and I feel she has a unique voice as a director, as you can see in her short film ‘Anna’, which won the first prize in cinefondation.

This win secured Or’s first feature film screening in Cannes. This would be the starting point for our worldwide festival tour.

Screenwriter's bio

Or is a graduate of the Jerusalem Sam Spiegel School. Her debut feature HOME received the production fund from Rabinovich FF in Israel and the Ukrainian FF. Participated in Torino Feature Lab 2021 and won the production award. Home was developed in Torino Script Lab 2020, where it won the CNC Award – Special Mention. She wrote and directed a few fiction shorts. Her short film Anna, won the Cinéfondation Award at Cannes 2016.

Director's bio

Or is a graduate of the Jerusalem Sam Spiegel School. Her debut feature HOME received the production fund from Rabinovich FF in Israel and the Ukrainian FF. Participated in Torino Feature Lab 2021 and won the production award. Home was developed in Torino Script Lab 2020, where it won the CNC Award – Special Mention. She wrote and directed a few fiction shorts. Her short film Anna, won the Cinéfondation Award at Cannes 2016.

Production company

An emerging film and TV production company with a special focus on female centered character-driven projects that challenge social conventions. Based in Tel-Aviv, the company was founded in 2019 by Adi Bar Yossef, a seasoned producer with 10 years of experience on numerous large scale, award-winning, Israeli productions.